Less than two months after outsourcing its fire department to Kurtz Paramedic Service, Calumet Park has ousted its full-time fire chief, the village’s mayor said.
Howard Fisher, who had served as chief since 2014, was let go earlier this month in what Mayor Ronald Denson said was primarily a cost-cutting move.
“I wanted a part-time (chief),” he said. “Since Kurtz was going to have their own staff and everything, I didn’t see the need to be paying $80,000-$90,000 for a full-time fire chief when I was gonna also have to be paying for an administrative person that was going to be there administering all the paperwork of that.”
Denson said he’s hoping to find a replacement for Fisher — who made $82,126 last year — within the next few weeks.
Once the new fire chief is appointed, he or she and an existing fire office clerk will be the department’s only public employees, at a combined cost of between $80,000 and $90,000 without benefits, he said. Kurtz employs the department’s 12 full-time firefighters, four of whom previously worked part-time for Calumet Park.